Githa with Commentary

Occultism

Series II

of

Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

by

Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

(Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti)

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Githa with Commentary           Series II: Number 7

Mental Vision

GITHA: There are times when in sleep or in the waking state man gets a glimpse of past, present or future happening. It is not like a dream which goes on like an act on the stage, but it is a picture. That is why it is called vision and that is the difference between dreams and vision.

TASAWWUF: This explains the difference between dream and vision. A vision may be like a picture, it is something seen. The word vision comes from the Latin word visi, I have seen. It appears as if apart from oneself although it may concern oneself. It may come in the waking state as well as when one is asleep. It generally stands out clear and bold although not always so.

The condition of dreams depends largely upon the state of one’s breath. Physical disturbances in the breath or changes due to the gases in and around one’s body greatly alter dreams. Thus if one sleeps where there is too much tobacco smoke or other impurities, the dreams will not be so clear. Also if one has overeaten or there is gaseous fermentation or other chemical disturbances the dreams will be different. Therefore although dreams may be mental and even supermental, there is often a physical factor in them.

Visions on the other hand require mental clarity. It is one’s inner feeling, one’s attitude toward oneself which may affect their charac­ter. A vision may therefore occur during sleep or in a waking state as if the mind were seeing. On the other hand the dreams that we have during the waking hours are called inclinations and the imaginations of sleep are called dreams. Imaginations in the day time necessarily stand out against a background of light, but it is physical light. Dreams may stand out in light or shadow which are mental or spiritual, not physical.

A purified breath will bring a purer dream and a purified breath also produces clarity in vision. It also increases the occurrence of vision in certain people. For the breath supplies the light which is necessary in both dream and vision.

GITHA: To those who are developed spiritually this vision often comes, sometimes as an answer to their question, sometimes to warn them of an unforeseen danger, and sometimes to guide them toward some accomplishment in life.

TASAWWUF: The spiritual people always receive guidance more easily than other people. That is because their hearts are pure and they are naturally receptive. Unless there be this receptivity one cannot gain much knowledge through either dreams or visions. This does not mean that one prays to have such experiences, but God may use such channels, and even mureeds in their earliest stages of inner development find themselves having an increasing number of significant dreams and visions.

There is thus a vision which comes as an answer to a question or the answer to a prayer. Whenever one asks a question in sincerity he leaves an accommodation for the answer. When there is such an accommodation there may be a rush of light from the spiritual realm and this makes clear vision and insight possible. Especially in this time when one has the selfless atti­tude, and does not keep the thought of self before him as he prays or seeks guidance.

Sometimes there is a warning or communication, so to speak, from the Spirit of Guidance. Every person at every stage of development is not possessed with the faculty of insight and even those who have some intuition do not always use it, do not seem so conscious of it. Then, if their hearts are pure, when they are quiet, a vision may come before their eyes and they may so receive the lesson they need.

Vision also takes on the form as if intuition turned into a picture. This comes when the light of the heart falls upon the mind-world and takes a particular form, holding it. There one sees the intuition so to speak; it uses the atoms and vibrations of the mind-world to manifest as if in name and form.

GITHA: Mental vision also comes to those who walk in the path of devotion and who hold an ideal in their concentration.

TASAWWUF: This is largely discussed in the lessons on concentration. Murakkabah is taught to mureeds in Sufism not only as a science; it is not dry and impersonal. Success in it depends to a considerable degree upon how the feeling holds the thought. To develop feeling one may need more devotion, and one should get away from egotism. So devotion is of great help; there is nothing more valuable in concentration than love and devotion.

Then there is the question of confirmation of success in Murakkabah. How does one know, how does the teacher know when the disciple has accomplished his exercise in concentration? This may come and in most persons it does come with a vision. When what one has been holding in thought, following the principles of the teachings, has been held to the extent and degree that one has thereby attained a certain mastery over thought, then it stands out in vision, and one has a certain vision. The concentration takes on a concrete form in the mind-world, occasionally on the physical plane also.

GITHA: To them at times when it is necessary in the form of that ideal a warning or a guidance appears as a vision.

TASAWWUF: This warning or guidance may come for oneself or another. It is a mistake to avoid it or to be heedless of it. Sometimes a mureed may have a vision for himself or for a less developed person or for a more developed person. The less developed person may ignore it regarding it as a sort of presumption. The more developed person may also ignore it, supposing that the other mureed is conjecturing. Then he will get the blow of it for lack of humility rand repentance.

It is a wonderful thing when man has so developed the spirit of humility that he can perceive the Spirit of Guidance in all forms. Then he will not ignore the warnings given to himself or another. And when this practice is more common either it will be that prophets will appear again on earth, or that humility will rise to a stage of evolution that the prophet will not be needed, there being more universal recognition of God and guidance.

GITHA: Those who master Tasawwur, meaning the concrete production of the ideal in thought, their first experience is that every form they see seems covered with the form of their ideal.

TASAWWUF: The explanation of Tasawwur is offered in the lessons in Murakkabah and in the commentaries thereupon. It is most valuable to all mureeds. It not only offers them every opportunity to develop along the path of self­lessness and self-renunciation (fana) but it also brings an ever increasing degree of realization (baqa). Then one comes to discover the divine life and divine light in all things.

The teacher generally serves the pupil as the best example for the ideal in concentrating, making success in Tasawwur possible. But it is also possible to reach that stage of development of which Salat says, “Thy light is in all forms, thy love in all beings.”

GITHA: This is the first step toward progress, which in the Sufic term is tamed fana-fi-Sheikh.

TASAWWUF: Really one can enter fana-fi-Sheikh from the beginning when one takes on Bayat. Yet one does not and often needs to go through many stages and degrees of purification, training and development. It is very easy to speak about self sacrifice and it is most difficult to arrive at an attain­ment when the self can be doffed as easily as one’s clothes.

The teachings of fana-fi-Sheikh were not offered in the course of study designed for the mureeds of the Western world although it is there by implication. Nevertheless Sufis through the ages have found that the best means of development and elevation comes through and from the whole-hearted trust in the teacher, doing everything as if for the teacher. It also makes possible the attunement of the teacher and pupil through the breath, through the heart, and through the eye.

GITHA: Then a vision is already created within them and advice on any point they wish for they receive from within.

TASAWWUF: For instance one may hold the vision of his teacher before him. And if one holds it well and is perplexed, then he asked that teacher in the vision, for an answer, for guidance and it comes. It may seem that the teacher is there and answering—and sometimes it is so. Or it may be that by doing this one becomes more refined, sensitive to finer vibrations and so learns and gains in life.

The average man, even the average good man, is not successful in all affairs of life. Some people also have difficulty in developing the intuition or for them intuition is not enough. Thus they may receive through vision. The practice of concentration makes all the necessary changes in one’s mind to produce mental vision, but there will be dreams rather than visions until one can hold the forms well. As one develops that faculty one also finds it possible to reach that state of which Christ has spoken: “Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” For the Lord is there and it is only necessary for man to approach Him in order to receive the holy guidance.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Githa with Commentary           Series II: Number 8

Symbolical Vision

GITHA: The dreams and visions that we have in life are mostly symbol­ical, and scarcely ever plain. They are symbolical because everything in the inner plane shapes differently from the form it wears in the outer plane.

TASAWWUF: In the inner plane things take on a form nearer their elemental essence. Thus the things of air may appear as blue, those of fire as red and so for all elements and colors. Besides there is a thought related to these elements, there is a rhythm related to them and if one were to have a vision which is in harmony with one element or two elements and the breath is not in harmony with those elements, he could not receive directly or clearly, it would come in symbolical form.

Besides, shapes and forms are significant. One does not think much about it although it is taught also in the Gathas of the Sufis, those concerned with Symbology. One also learns of the importance of move­ments in various teachings and although vision may appear without having much movement, the direction of every line is important. One may overlook these things if one wishes, but there is a significance in all things. As is stated in Gayan, “Everything matters and yet nothing matters.”

Symbols also appear in dreams and visions and they have the same meaning as in lessons. Whether they have universal significance or not, once the mind of any person associates symbols with certain thoughts and events the appearance of such symbols in vision signifies those parti­cular thoughts and events.

GITHA: The same reason accounts for the inspiration of the prophets, for many others besides them at times touch the same goal that they touched, since the consciousness of all is one. But everybody does not realize it consciously, and some who realize it do not know the language of the inner world, for the spirit speaks a language that is unintell­igible to all save a few who are gifted by nature to understand the cry of truth behind it.

TASAWWUF: Is it then that some are privileged to pierce the veil? Are there some persons whom God favors and some who are not so favored? Are the Orthodox correct, then, in separating the sheep from the goats, the damned from the saved? No, the Sufi would not admit that this is so. He says that the light of God is in all forms and beings and he does not exclude anyone from the sway of God’s mercy. It is only that some recognize and the majority do not recognize. They are self-veiled, they are not veiled by Allah.

According to the Buddhist teachings there is the Universal Spirit in all which the Buddhists call Bodhisattva and to which the Sufis refer as the Spirit of Guidance. Ordinarily man is unaware of it; he is asleep so to speak. Sometimes, however, he awakens and then he feels the life surging in and around him, it being in him and he being in it. Then he is aware that all things have some meaning and he seeks that meaning. When he seeks that meaning the meaning becomes known to him. It is as Christ said, “Ask and ye shall receive.”

While one may never enter upon the path of God for the selfish purpose of gaining prophethood and while only a small number, even of the elect, may become prophets, it is not necessary for everyone to serve God in this capacity. If one needs help personally, he does not have to seek a prophet, a wise man will suffice. Besides, this language of nature is something that appears deep within the personality. And when it makes itself known one can call it a language although the manner of its impression may be quite different from the way in which languages are ordinarily impressed.

All things that man sees before him, all the colors and forms and sounds have their significance. These can be traced back to a source which may be regarded as the source of all things.

GITHA: A person who has known oranges is not necessarily able to recognize the orange trees but he who knows the orange-tree can expect oranges on seeing the seedling of the orange-tree. Sometimes the buds of flowers cannot at all give the idea of what the flower is like, and sometimes the shell of the nut can delude a person who does not know what it is and may not be benefitted by the kernel in it.

TASAWWUF: So it is that dreams and visions may appear to anyone but all do not know their significance. There is a direct meaning in them and there is something in each which throws light upon the condition of the dreamer. Besides, the symbol indicates without directly telling. A word is not the thing it represents, neither is the symbol. Hindu music has often been drawn from pictures; many ragas are expressed through pictures. It may seem strange to us; it is also strange to others that we represent the music by signs upon the paper. To us it does not seem strange, they are symbols we can read and by reading them correctly reproduce the music. To others it is magic.

Symbolical discernment means tracing the line of things and knowing the meaning of them. Just as the symbols that one has before him in Naqshibandi are often the keys to marvelous things in the unknown, so everything that appears in vision may have an unknown meaning. The key to it is found in the intuitions. With heart-development all becomes clear.

GITHA: Many people see symbolical dreams and some see symbolical visions and yet cannot understand their effect, for they sometimes seem quite different from the effect they have.

TASAWWUF: For instance, there is the symbology of form. There are many forms such as triangle, sphere, cross, star. One may see them directly as symbols and may or may not know their meanings. Yet these symbols are all hidden in nature. There may be a triangle in the leaf and the cross in the palms of the hands and the dot and circle in the eye. And when one looks into things one may not recognize their meanings.

So also the straight line has its meanings, and according to the direction in which it comes and goes its significance alters. One may know this intellectually without being always able to interpret in dreams. And there are many forms which seem to have little relationship to symbols although when one traces them carefully it often happens so. Besides, color is also significant.

But the main thing to understand is that there is a heart-faculty called intuition and when one has that the meaning of every vision as well as of every picture and every scene gradually becomes clear. All things take on a new life. There are not so many mysteries before one. And if one does not know these things, then he can go to the sage who does know.

GITHA: For instance, an elephant in the East is considered to be a sign of honor, and in the dream it is the sign of death.

TASAWWUF: This does not mean that every time one dreams of an elephant there is going to be a death. Among these people there is a thought-form associated with the dream of the elephant. Those who live in the area which has been magnetized by that thought-form may have such dreams and the dreams have such meanings. Elsewhere it may be quite different: a bat or a black cat, the losing of a tooth or the plucking of a flower may mean death. If there is a certain symbol used in a certain place and the use of that symbol has impressed itself upon the minds of the generality, then its appearance in dream may have that particular significance; else­where it may have a different significance or no significance. Thus an exact dream-book may be impossible, yet there are certain symbols which have a universal meaning and the psychic law does not change because of change in place, condition or tradition.

Other animals also have symbolical meanings. Astrology has made use of them and the Tarot science also. These are more universal in scope and perhaps at some time there was an attempt to get the whole world to accept the same symbols. The time for this has not come yet.

GITHA: One cannot take an object as having such and such an effect in life, it is how it is produced that makes one realize its result.

TASAWWUF: This is true of every experience one has. The law of physics says that everybody in the universe attracts every other body in a certain mathematical manner; the law of metaphysics is not different. We affect things and things affect us; we send our vibrations and our atmosphere to a multitude of forms and these multitudes of forms constitute the environ­ment which may have a remarkable influence upon our lives.

The difference between the mystic and the ordinary thinker is that the mystic does not limit the laws of life to the seen world. He does not hold that the use of such terms as “imaginary,” “dreams,” “vision,” “trance,” constitute a relative unreality; indeed they may constitute a relative reality, they may even be more real than the material substances with which we meet at all times. No, it is not that they are actually more real or less real, only our failure to cognize them or evaluate them sometimes makes us blind to the greater wonders of life.

This point is well considered in the Sufi lessons on concentration and in the studies on spiritual art. The thought of the artist is hidden in what he portrays. It is symbolical whether he considers it so or not; he is always hidden in what he does. A wise man may thus sees beyond the form and some psychometrists are able to describe the artist and explain his character by looking at a single work of his hands.

GITHA: Intelligence is a great bliss and when it is clear it helps one realize the nature of things and by that one can read symbolical dreams. The study of symbology can never suffice for one’s purpose, for there is no limit to the variety of nature’s forms; it is intuition that helps one and makes the meaning clear.

TASAWWUF: For when the intuitive faculty is developed all things speak to man, everything reveals its meaning. The form may tell a little and the color tell something but the vibrations and atoms which constitute any form anybody, any picture, even any vision, themselves send out vibrations.

They may send out material vibrations and also mental vibrations, even vibrations of feeling if feeling has been put into them. Nothing can hide what is put into it. And if one has an awakened heart and is sensitive, he can read these vibrations, they will speak to him.

It is by this that the wise can often discern the inner meanings of things, the things speak to them. Whatever heart life is in something will appeal to heart, and whatever intelligence is there can be discerned. The principles of Sufi metaphysics are not just doctrines or teachings of the theories of the universe; they are tools which enable man to understand the universe, and himself. And to him who opens the way to the light of intelligence all things will come and serve.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Githa with Commentary           Series II: Number 9

Astral Vision

GITHA. Astral vision is the seeing of the unseen beings such as spirits, jinns, fairies or angels. Now to the question whether it is we who make them or they who come; the answer is: both—in part we make them, in part they come.

TASAWWUF: According to the Qur’an God created man out of His light and out of the light of man were the heavens and earth made. The same is also a basic teaching of universal occultism, that man stands between God the Creator and God the created universe. Both may be regarded as aspects of the Only Being, positive and negative, and man stands between these two aspects with all potentialities.

Between the light of man and the universe there is a certain play and there below Adam are the worlds of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. Between the light of man and God there is a certain play and there appear the kingdoms of the jinns and angels. Between the jinns and the lower kingdoms there is a certain play and there appear the various creatures: between jinns and the mineral the naraka state; between jinn-world and the vege­tables the preta stage; between the jinn-world and the animals the rakshas; between the angels and animals the yakshas; between jinns and angels the gandharvas and upsaras, the musical geniuses.

In Murakkabah, after one has passed through the various stages of concen­tration upon things of name and form, the disciple of Sufism is given a certain kind of concentration upon that for which there is a name, but the form is indistinct. By devoted concentration one can then dull the senses to the visible world and the light of his being made to be transferred to the worlds usually unseen by the mortal men. Then he may seem to come into ore direct contact with the beings upon other planes.

This stage of development is both a progress and a temptation. It is progress to be able to rise beyond the denseness of earth but it is temptation if one feels proud of it or if one becomes too concerned with the life of those beings. The life on earth is given to man for a certain purpose, and he is here to fulfill that purpose. When he leaves this world he may have another purpose, another dharma.

GITHA: In saying we make them I do not mean one single individual in particular, perhaps another person. And yet, as all are children of God, although they are called the children of their parents, so all seen and unseen beings are created by One Source Whom man recognizes as the Creator.

TASAWWUF: Yes, it seems true that the thought-forms are created by man, sustained by man. Not always does one man help to create and sustain these thought-forms and give them life, often many people give rise to a certain thought, or, if influenced by it, coming to believe in it, they give strength and magnetism and life to it. So it persists in remaining in the mind­-world and by counter-action produces karma in the physical world.

There is a tendency to regard oneself as real no matter how often one repeats the phrase, “The Only Being.” It is a very hard lesson to learn this no matter how much one tries. Yet the trial is worth the effort and perhaps we shall each one awaken some day and recognize our true nature.

Therefore the nature of karma is much understood because sometimes there is a tacit assumption, seldom examined, that we exist and also that we do not exist. The effect of our lives, of our thought, speech and motion upon the world, the effect of others upon us, and of the world upon us is not always fully understood. Yet the life-force comes all from one Source.

GITHA: Every unseen form that we see in a vision, be it of a spirit, fairy or angel, or of a teacher, sage or saint, is according to man’s evolution. As highly evolved a person is, so high is his vision.

TASAWWUF: By “unseen form” is meant some form not usually seen, that one does not see them ordinarily even when aware of their presence and again there is another condition, perhaps in sleep or half-sleep or trance when one can see them.

Students of psychism and occultism have usually been more interested in visions of spirits, fairies or angels. These may be regarded as three classes of beings and it requires a deeper understanding and higher development to contact each. Spirits are the souls of the departed, who live in the mind-world and who are not necessarily different from when they were on earth, although they no longer have a material body. Often one dreams or has a vision from a loved-one who has passed on. Especially when one is not highly devel­oped and would not recognize a benign spirit, warnings or messages may come through the departed parent or friend on the other side.

Concentration for this line of development is not particularly stressed. Indeed if there is any such communication it comes incidentally. One may learn, through various practices, to overcome the limitations of time and space. Then one must have or must develop a more refined nature and when there is this refinement contact with less developed persons may be difficult because one’s threshold of consciousness is beyond them, such people not being able to come to the light of one’s atmosphere.

Thus the mystic may be far away from the psychic who at best contacts spirits, often the thoughts of spirits, confusing the thoughts with the spirits themselves.

Contact or communication with jinns, fairies and denizens of the mind-world in general requires a further development. And it often follows that one becomes so interested in it that he will not particularly care to commu­nicate with the spirits of the departed. Besides, others do that and from selfishness, pride, interest, curiosity or inner motive he will find more delight in this form of communication.

This subject more properly belongs to the study of The Soul, Whence and Whither, to the questions and answers upon it and to the commentaries, also to the commentary upon “The Phenomenon of the Soul” and other subjects. And also to certain stages in Murakkabah. And there is a great value in opening up to the mind-world and in being able to study it without leaving the earth, although if one remains in this stage, he loses much of the blessing thereof.

There have been persons in past ages who contacted the beings of the next world and achieved mastery over them. The Sufi does not deny this possibility but he keeps the God-ideal before him at all times, and if, when Allaho Akbar is repeated the dream or vision disappears, then it was of no value. Only things which can stand up before the light of God are valuable.

The same is true of the visions of the angelic world. There has been a book written on The Brotherhood of Angels and Men [by Geoffrey Hodson]. While well named the author seems to have overlooked entirely that the brotherhood of man has not been achieved. To try to accomplish this seemingly more wonderful deed is worse than useless, for if some men are devils they will not want the pure angels, they will want the brotherhood with the devils. Therefore visions of angels are not sought for their own sake. Nevertheless, if, in order to understand the universe and oneself, this stage of Murakkabah and inner awaken­ing has to be experienced, one should not hesitate to pass through it.

Contact with the teacher in the seen world at a distant or in the unseen world, when he has departed from this plane, is often very valuable. Disciples are all encouraged to advance along this path. Even to pretend it to be true, to play at communication with the teacher is good. Anything that will help to attune pupil and teacher is valuable.

Communication with a sage or saint may be because of the Grace of God, that man has attained a certain stage of evolution, and because of that God may send any Divine Being or holy teacher to him with a message or for some particular purpose. Although this looks easier than the preceding types of concentration, communication and vision, because man is mightier than the angels, this is a mightier grade of contact. The importance of it can hardly be overestimated.

GITHA: Sometimes he attracts the object of his vision, sometimes the object of the vision wishes to manifest to him, and sometimes he creates the object of the vision before him.

TASAWWUF: The magicians and occultists have usually sought to attract the object of vision. Whether their methods are used or the more spiritual methods are employed, all receive deft development of will. Without will­power one can become subject of obsession and while there is a sort of attraction in it, it is valueless and purposeless. Yet there have been those who could learn alike from the denizens of the unseen and from the holy beings of all type and grades.

It is right for man to make every accommodation that the light of God appear to him in various forms, in many forms. Spiritual development does require some effort on man’s part whether it be through self-surrender or development of will.

Also it is true that as man takes one step toward Allah, Allah may take many steps toward him. Man is the instrument by which and through which Allah manifests. The various holy beings and messengers of God may appear in vision and bring aid and guidance needed. Their appearance in all cases is a blessing, and if there is any doubt whether they are true khalifas or phantoms, one can discern immediately by repeating “Allaho Akbar” or some such phrase. Then the true will stand out even more clearly while the unclean (haram) will disappear.

But it is also true that the visions that appear may be self-created. This is mostly because of progress in Murakkabah. This shows that man, made in the image and likeness of God, can become, so to speak, a miniature God. Especially for the purposes of invention and art-creation it is wonderful if one can create the model in the unseen and then see it before him in vision before a form is made in Nasut.

GITHA: The goodness of the vision depends upon the greatness of the object.

TASAWWUF: That is to say, one may grade visions, as they have been graded upon. Six such grades are offered, but it is largely to give one an idea of the importance of each kind of vision in the spiritual life, and the way in which they mark the various stages of progress.

GITHA: In an astral vision a relation or a friend may appear to a person and tell him something about the other side of life.

TASAWWUF: It is this kind of vision that has interested so many people and led to the formation of psychic research societies and to the writing of many books (Sir Oliver Lodge’s Raymond being one of the most noteworthy). As this form of experience is more common and needs less development it is the best to prove certain things to the scientists and materialists but its value in the spiritual life is very limited. For merely by leaving the body one does not learn much and each spirit gravitates to that part of the mental world which is attuned to his grade of evolution. The higher the progress the higher they go, but when they advance far they do not usually care to contact earth anymore, so it is more often the less developed that manifest and they do not always offer much instruction. Far more often they bring confusion.

Therefore one should as St. Paul tells us, always test the spirits. And those that disappear when the name of God is mentioned may be regarded as diabolical or useful. Those who stand up before the name of God may be considered to be true spirits and one may communicate with them or receive from them.

GITHA: Before another a saint or sage may appear, who may guide him still further.

TASAWWUF: This appearance is due to the Grace of God. One may learn through a saint or sage in many manners, and this is especially true of disciples in fana-fi-Pir or fana-fi-Rassoul. Also when one is on the path of the saint the saint may appear to him. One has to be quite receptive and be able to still the mind, otherwise the visions will not remain or one will learn little from them. All Sufis have regarded such visitations as important and holy.

GITHA: To another an angel may appear, as Gabriel to Moses, and may give him the Message of God.

TASAWWUF: An angel originally meant a messenger, particularly a messenger of God. In the ancient times people were given special training so that they could thus receive. Nevertheless with the growth of the spiritual sciences which have become linked with Sufism, it was found that man could best learn from man. An angel is essentially a heart-being and commu­nicated with the heart. Anything that comes to the heart may expand into an endless array of inspired thoughts, so from one slight experience many words and teachings may come.

GITHA: In all cases the vision is a bliss, especially when a person is treading a spiritual path.

TASAWWUF: For the psychics do not experience this. No matter how true the stories of their communications with the dead or departed, seldom do they reveal any degree of happiness or even of knowledge. There is no expansion of heart. A spiritual communication may not be distinguishable directly on its phenomenal side but it will always have the effect of broadening the spirit. One will rise above the state of selfhood and ecstasy or no ecstasy will be as if a different personality thereafter.

It is for God to determine the manner in which guidance comes to man, while it is man’s duty to be alert and awaken to such guidance so that he can receive it. And if an angelic person appears, or Elijah or Khidr comes, one is indeed blessed. Then whatever he receives and thereafter whatever he does will be filled with Baraka, the spiritual blessings which manifest in some magnetic form. Thus they give light and life and healing and strength to the multitude.

Those who tread the path of God should praise and extol God and keep him in view at all times. Then if the blessing comes in the form of vision, they can help humanity to extent of satisfying the needs of the world.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Githa with Commentary           Series II: Number 10

Spiritual Vision

GITHA: Although all things that one meets with in his life’s journey are either made by himself or by others or by both, by an individual or by a multitude, yet when the soul is clear from all doubts and confusion he sees the clear picture of his own life or of the life of another, perhaps, for whom he cares, however distant in space or time it may be.

TASAWWUF: This has sometimes been known as reading the akashic records. The idea in it is that all that occurs has made its mark sometime and somewhere in the universe and the sage is able to pick up these records wherever they be, read them, and offer the knowledge thereof to himself or to the world. According to the Sufis this is possible and much more because the universe is, so to speak, within man. Ordinarily the conscious­ness does not extend out into space or include space. It requires consid­erable refinement to reach the development wherein space-consciousness and cosmic-consciousness are possible—but they are possible.

There is a tradition that when the question of succession came before Mohammed and he tested the four great men who ultimately became his khalifs, Omar said he saw God first and shay or thing afterwards—this is known as the Platonic view, Othman said he saw shay first and God afterwards—this includes the Aristotelian and scientific views, although the scientists use intuition more than they realize. Ali said he saw God alone and not shay; this is the view of transcendental idealism which is usually too hard for mankind to understand. But Abu Bakr Siddiq said he saw God and shay together; this was considered the best view and accordingly was the first Khalif chosen.

The Sufi today says that God is the only Being, (Ali’s view), also that “Thy Light is in all forms, Thy Love in all beings—which includes the views of both Omar and Siddiq. All would agree that the divine light is in all things. Without Ishk nothing has been made, the force of attraction which holds the atoms together is verily from God.

It is interesting to note that the study of the atom and its subdivisions and the study of light have gone along together. The nearer man seems to approach the mystery of things the more he becomes concerned with light. This has always been true of the inward search and it is now true of the outward search also.

What hinders man in his search and in his perception is usually his own lack of development. When the heart is covered, the vision cannot be clear; when the mind is in confusion the vision is obscured and one is subject to delusion. But when the cloak of self is removed all things may be or become the manifestations of God and then there are no mysteries before one. Therefore the spiritual vision is not necessarily an exclusive vision like the mental vision of the mind-world, or the astral vision which includes the physical and mental worlds to some extent but mostly is concerned with heart. The spiritual vision is concerned with all that there is.

Therefore if one brings up the question as to the possibility of the spiritual vision, claiming that spirit is all that is, and that if there is vision there can be no spirit and if there is spirit there can be no vision, the answer is that it is not necessarily a different experience or vision, but that the light of God manifests in the vision. And this means that the consciousness of man has awakened, for the light of God is always there; only those who are still in the darkness do not perceive it. Spiritual vision therefore is a direct recognition of God within and without.

GITHA: This vision manifests to a spiritual mind, and sometimes to anyone who may be for that moment in a clear spiritual atmosphere.

TASAWWUF: By “spiritual mind” is meant the makam of high development and by “clear spiritual atmosphere” is meant that one has reached a hal in which the cloak of personality is doffed, and the division consciousness manifests. Sometimes under great stress of pain or love this happens, and also when one has reached a stage of deep meditation and so risen out of the delusion of the ego-mind. He still looks and he still does everything that he did before, but it is different. Something has happened within himself.

This is what is meant by the illumination of the Buddhists, espec­ially those of the Zen school. For them man and the universe are no longer separate. They realize the identity; it comes with the illumination and emancipation. This is the true Monism. There is then no more “thou-ness” and “I-ness,” there is no more selfhood before Allah.

GITHA: Sometimes man overlooks such pictures manifesting before him in a dream or in the waking state.

TASAWWUF: There is often the tendency to overlook such things and explain them as miraj. Yet they are clear revelations of insight (kashf). They prove the identity of the spirit of man with the spirit of the universe. Indeed if man could only throw away the ego (nufs) this spiritual vision would occur more often. It is a coming out of darkness and ignorance. Then, as Jesus Christ has said, “the light of the body is the eye,” the eye itself would throw light upon all things. This is the real opening of the inner eye. When the inner eye opens it seems that the whole universe is as if within.

Besides the direct spiritual stage, the quieting and soothing of mind at all times is helpful, and in the solitude is it more successful than in the noise of streets.. Therefore communion with nature is valuable, and if this be impossible or impracticable, Khilvat may be substituted, which also helps man rise above the denseness of earth and the limitations of the generality.